


Sticky Fingers

by orphan_account



Series: Tumblr Fic Requests [7]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Gen, Kleptomania, Request Response
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-28
Updated: 2015-08-28
Packaged: 2018-04-17 17:49:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4675769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"This is kleptomania. A little TLC isn’t going to make it vanish."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sticky Fingers

**Author's Note:**

> Based off of [this AU](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4067035).

“ Eren, we’ve  talked about this,” Levi said, pinching the bridge of his nose. Eren sat on the floor, his knees drawn up to his chest and his arms folded, letting him hide his face from Levi and Hanji’s presence. It hurt to swallow, shame and guilt choking him, even as he listened to Levi berate him for slipping up.  Again .

The goods were still strewn on Eren’s bed, where he had dumped them as soon as he was safe in his room. A room that Levi had given him to use when he found out Eren didn’t have one of his own. A room that Levi had  offered  him in hopes to stop exactly what Eren had just  done.

“This is the fifth time, Eren. Five times in just as many months. Why do you still need to do this?”

“I don’t know!” Eren shouted, his words choked with tears. “I can’t help it! I don’t want to take things anymore, Levi! I—”

“Levi, get the fuck out,” Hanji said, their voice never faltering from the chipper, upbeat personality Eren had grown familiar with. Eren didn’t look up as Levi made some type of snarling, frustrated noise, and the door slammed shut behind him. There was silence for several breaths, and soon a hand rested on Eren’s hair, ruffling it as arms came to wrap around him.

“I’m so rry about him, sweetie. Are you going to be okay? ”

“I guess,” Eren mumbled, his voice giving away the fact he’d started to cry. “I owe Levi so much, and all I can do is disappoint him over and over again, Hanji. I don’t know what to do. He’s going to give up on me, and I don’t have anywhere else to go. I can’t go back to the others, I’m done for.”

“ Sssh ,” they soothed, stroking a hand up and down his back. “We’re going to figure it out, okay? It’s not an overnight fix, love. This is going to take a while, and you’re going to slip up again. It’s going to happen. But that’s what we  gotta  plan on. How to stop you from slipping up, and how to fix it if it happens.”

“Levi’s so mad at me,” Eren hiccupped. “I let him down.”

“He has his own expectations, and they’re more about his own ability to help you than your actual behaviour, Eren.” Eren looked over, seeing Hanji’s amused face. “That man thinks he can do whatever the fuck he wants. Most of the time, he’s able to. But just because he thinks he’s the shit, doesn’t mean he’s infallible, either. He thought it’d be easy to get you out of this little loop we’re stuck in. But he’s going about it the wrong way.”

“Huh?”

“Eren, this is kleptomania. A little TLC isn’t going to make it vanish. Levi’s going to have to accept that and figure out Plan B, once he gets his head out of his ass enough to see that Plan A was a horrible idea.”

A knock on the door had Eren burying his head back into his arms, and Hanji sighing, pushing back to their feet to answer. The door opened, and then closed again with only the sound of feet padding on carpet to show that anything had taken place.

“Hey,” Levi said, his voice subdued. Eren didn’t look up, and Levi sighed. “I brought cocoa.”

Eren sniffed, peeking out of his arm to see Levi sitting on the edge of the bed, a mug held between two hands. Steam was still rising from it, and Eren shifted, his arms falling and his knees tilting to let himself scoot closer, hand held out for the cup. The older man handed it over, his eyes cast down.

“I shouldn’t have yelled at you. I’m sorry, Eren.”

“I’m sorry I did it again,” Eren whispered, and Levi shook his head.

“No, I was in the wrong. Yes, you shouldn’t have stolen, but I was well aware that this was a problem. Hanji’s told me over and over again to watch my temper, and I let you down. Are you upset with me?” Levi asked, and Eren’s eyes widened, his head shaking back and forth vehemently.

“No! I get why you yelled, I fucked up again—”

“Eren, stop. This isn’t going to get us anywhere. You slipped up, you didn’t ‘fuck up.’ You have a problem, okay? We need to treat it like it is. We’re going to figure this out. Now, let’s move on. What made you want to take these things in particular? Did someone ask you, or was this the… how did you call it. Itchy fingers?”

“Sticky fingers,” Eren mumbled, the term one he had heard in relation to him since he could remember. His mother had always scolded him about it, his ‘sticky fingers’ having found a new target almost weekly, to her annoyance.

“Yes, your sticky fingers. What drew you to …  I don’t even know what these are.”

“I don’t either,” Eren muttered. “They just looked nic e.”

“Talk about distracted by a shiny object,” Levi said, and Eren snorted into his cocoa.

“I saw them in the display window at the store,” Eren said. “I tried to just keep walking, but… it  hurt . Like an ache. I almost got ran over before I gave up and turned around.”

Levi remained quiet as Eren rambled, biting his lip and tightening his grip on his mug.

“It was like… if I didn’t have them, nothing would be right. Nothing could ever be right. So… I took them. All of them.”

“You know we’re going to have to take them back.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s going to be okay.”

“No it’s not, but thanks anyway.”

Levi huffed, reaching out and smacking Eren against the back of his head lightly. Eren ignored him, sipping at his lukewarm drink.

“Let me do the talking, and you just stand there and look pretty. Not like that’ll be hard.”

“…Are you saying I’m pretty?”

Levi raised an eyebrow, looking Eren’s scruffy, exhausted, and tear-stained face over.

“Do I look like a liar to you?”

“Well, if I turn my head and squint…” Eren trailed off, his lips twitching. Levi rolled his eyes, standing up and moving across the room to the door.

“Get yourself cleaned up. We’ll take these back as soon as you’re ready to go.”

“Levi?” Eren asked, and the man halted in the open doorway. “Thanks. For… not giving up on me.”

“Always,” was Levi’s response, and Eren smiled to himself as the door closed. Hanji was right, it wasn’t going to be easy. But… he had someone rooting for him. Someone who wanted to see him succeed. And someone that Eren wanted to prove right. The shiny metal knickknacks on the bed glinted at him tauntingly, but he kept Levi’s reassurances strong in his mind, and he forced the ache down, putting them back in the cloth sack he had carried them in.

He  would  get better. He had to. Levi was counting on him.

**Author's Note:**

> **[Find me on Tumblr!](annoyinglittletwit.tumblr.com) **
> 
> I will be tracking the tags  
> fic: sticky fingers ; series: Tumblr Fic Requests ; series: TFR


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